Of Human Action
Of Human Action In Queens, New York, police chase a sedan driven through a parking garage by two men keeping a teenage boy named Tyler Carson in the backseat. The police officers surround the car and draw their weapons, demanding that the men exit the car. They do, and Tyler stays in his seat. Without explanation, Officer Gibson goes to the parking ramp and jumps to his death. Officer Williams shoots her two remaining compatriots, then herself. The kidnappers’ crime spree continues on the road. One of them, Patrick Hickey, demands that a convenience store clerk hand over all his cash. Another customer tries to intervene, but then takes a pot of hot coffee, pours the coffee to his face, and beats himself with the pot. The cashier electrocutes himself. Examining the policewoman who shot herself, Walter Bishop concludes that she was the victim of mind control rather than hypnosis. Theorizing that the mind control works on an auditory basis, he develops a method of combating the effects through the use of white noise. The tactical team led by Olivia Dunham traces the kidnappers—both of them car salesmen with no serious criminal record—to a warehouse. One of them drives the car through a large door, but is burnt in the explosion when the car flips. Olivia gets the drop on the surviving kidnapper, Tom Dobbins, who points a gun at his own chin and begs for her help. Peter Bishop, wearing headphones that broadcast Walter’s white noise, follows the ransom payment. It leads him to Tyler, who says, “You can take off those stupid headphones. They won’t work.” Peter is now forced into helping Tyler Carson, who has mind control powers due to his father Dr. James Carson working on thought-controlled weapons systems. Peter tries to get into Tyler’s head by sharing his own stories of his father not believing in him, but Tyler rejects the attempts to bond. He only needs a driver. Their destination is the home of Tyler’s mother, Renee Davies, whom Tyler had been told was dead. When the two of them meet, Tyler wants her to run off so that they can be mother and son. She refuses, and Tyler becomes enraged at her husband Seth Davies when he returns home. Tyler tries to force Peter to shoot the husband, but changes the target to Phillip Broyles when he arrives at the house with Olivia. Peter is forced to shoot Broyles, but manages to pull the gun off-center so that the Homeland Security agent is only hit in the shoulder. After Peter crashes the car that both he and Tyler are in, Tyler is brought unconscious into custody. Nina Sharp writes a message to the absent William Bell updating him on the status of the Carson-Penrose experiments. (Claus Penrose is a scientist seen caring for a genetically engineered killer in the much earlier episode "The Same Old Story".) Tyler is one of many identical boys placed with foster families, and James was his assigned guardian, not his father. Renee Davies is said to be his surrogate mother.